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Started working out and...
- Thread starter mojo1701
- Start date
SpiderMonkey
Explorer
As a college student, I've been off and on more training programs (...and then came exams) than I can count. The one for beginners that I see over and over again, however (and that always works for getting me back in shape...before exams) is as follows:
* Get in around 15-30 mins of cardio a day. Jog, walk, use a stepper, bike, whatever. Just do it.
* More veggies, less sweets, less fast food. That's just common sense.
* Since you have a membership to the gym, the best starting weightlifting routine that I've found revolves around a four day program, 3 days 'on' and one day 'off.' If you're going every other day, however, I can see the following situation:
Monday: Chest, Back, Calves, Abs, Cardio
Wednesday: Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Abs, Cardio
Friday: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Calves, Abs, Cardio
Saturday: Lots of Cardio, Abs
For each muscle group, I'd start out with two exercises (Bench Press and Dumbell flyes for chest, for example), and do two sets of 12 to 15 reps each. At first, don't worry about doing big weights; just aclimate your muscles to the motions and get them used to balancing the weights. As you get more comfortable with the motions and a bit stronger, you can increase the intensity/weight. After a month or so, experiment. Try adding another exercise to each muscle group, another set to each exercise, doing less reps at more weight, etc.
Let us know how it turns out for you!
* Get in around 15-30 mins of cardio a day. Jog, walk, use a stepper, bike, whatever. Just do it.
* More veggies, less sweets, less fast food. That's just common sense.
* Since you have a membership to the gym, the best starting weightlifting routine that I've found revolves around a four day program, 3 days 'on' and one day 'off.' If you're going every other day, however, I can see the following situation:
Monday: Chest, Back, Calves, Abs, Cardio
Wednesday: Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Abs, Cardio
Friday: Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Calves, Abs, Cardio
Saturday: Lots of Cardio, Abs
For each muscle group, I'd start out with two exercises (Bench Press and Dumbell flyes for chest, for example), and do two sets of 12 to 15 reps each. At first, don't worry about doing big weights; just aclimate your muscles to the motions and get them used to balancing the weights. As you get more comfortable with the motions and a bit stronger, you can increase the intensity/weight. After a month or so, experiment. Try adding another exercise to each muscle group, another set to each exercise, doing less reps at more weight, etc.
Let us know how it turns out for you!
tombshroud
Explorer
My second post ever! and only a little while after my first post ever - you all will think I never shut up!
I used to train for boxing and powerlifting but getting married and working over time quickly expanded my gut. Recently I have gone on the South Beach diet. It is tough, especially if you like caffeine - what gamers don't?- but I have lost 17 pounds is 6 weeks with almost no excercise. I recently started excercising again so I will have to wait and see what that does to my weight. They sell the south beach diet book all over the place so it should be relatively easy to find and it is pretty simple to follow - assuming you make your will save to avoid chocolate, caffeine, and what not
I used to train for boxing and powerlifting but getting married and working over time quickly expanded my gut. Recently I have gone on the South Beach diet. It is tough, especially if you like caffeine - what gamers don't?- but I have lost 17 pounds is 6 weeks with almost no excercise. I recently started excercising again so I will have to wait and see what that does to my weight. They sell the south beach diet book all over the place so it should be relatively easy to find and it is pretty simple to follow - assuming you make your will save to avoid chocolate, caffeine, and what not
DaveStebbins
First Post
As previously mentioned, the most important thing is figuring out how to make it a habit. Work out on a regular schedule, whether it is mornings, lunchtime, or after work. If you begin to find obstacles to working out at one time, try working out at another time of day. The best thing you can do is find someone to work out with. Having a regular schedule and a commitment to someone else to be there, as well as the positive reinforcement working out with a friend gives is far and away the most likely way to make working out truly a habit, instead of something you start, then taper off with and then stop altogether.
I tried several times over the past couple of years and discovered that there's no way I'm dragging my butt out of bed early on a regular basis. Working out after work was OK, but too often I found myself working late. Finally, I started working out at lunchtime (the place I work at has a small fitness center on site). There's always a great group of people there to socialize with, and I find myself looking forward to the stress breaker every day. I've lost about 15 pounds in the last two months; ten more and I'll have reached my goal. I'm in the best shape I've ever been (except for the two years two decades ago when I unloaded trucks for a living). With bicycle season almost here (I like to bike on the local peninsula, which extends out into the lake that is still only around 40 degrees), I should hit my goal this summer, just in time for my 25th high school reunion.
Oh, one other tip, books on CD. My local library system has a good deal of books on CD. I borrow them and listen to them while I work out. It's yet another reason to show up every day, so I can listen to another 45 minutes of whatever book I'm currently into. I rip the books to my computer and download them onto my MP3 player. I think I've only read a couple of hardcopy books in the last year, but I've listened to over a dozen audiobooks.
-Dave
I tried several times over the past couple of years and discovered that there's no way I'm dragging my butt out of bed early on a regular basis. Working out after work was OK, but too often I found myself working late. Finally, I started working out at lunchtime (the place I work at has a small fitness center on site). There's always a great group of people there to socialize with, and I find myself looking forward to the stress breaker every day. I've lost about 15 pounds in the last two months; ten more and I'll have reached my goal. I'm in the best shape I've ever been (except for the two years two decades ago when I unloaded trucks for a living). With bicycle season almost here (I like to bike on the local peninsula, which extends out into the lake that is still only around 40 degrees), I should hit my goal this summer, just in time for my 25th high school reunion.
Oh, one other tip, books on CD. My local library system has a good deal of books on CD. I borrow them and listen to them while I work out. It's yet another reason to show up every day, so I can listen to another 45 minutes of whatever book I'm currently into. I rip the books to my computer and download them onto my MP3 player. I think I've only read a couple of hardcopy books in the last year, but I've listened to over a dozen audiobooks.
-Dave
EricNoah
Adventurer
I just started a very plain Jane "count calories and exercise more" diet. After counting my "typical" intake and finding it to be in the 2500+ calories per day range (which is too much for a shorter guy like myself), decided to try to get myself slimmed down for summer. I'm sticking to 1500 calories per day, plus 45 minutes of exercise per day (walking every day, with light weight training alternate days). We'll see how this goes; I'm in it to slim down but not necessarily lose weight -- I will gauge success based on how I look and feel rather than number of pounds.
Day 1 was fine. Day 2 was tough for me for some reason; I really did feel deprived. Today (Day 3) wasn't bad though.
The hardest part is figuring out how many calories a particular food has, as well as correctly estimating serving sizes ("how much is 1 ounce of cheese really?"). I have found the following websites helpful:
http://www.calorieking.com/tools/exercise_calories.php (enter exercise duration to get a list of different exercises and how many calories they burn)
http://www.calorieking.com/tools/exercise_time.php (kind of the reverse -- If I want to undo 500 calories, how much time of each kind of exercise will I need?)
http://www.nutritiondata.com/ (use the search tool in the upper right corner to find calorie and nutrition data; also check out the measurement conversion tool at the bottom of each search results page to turn grams into ounces etc.)
Another hard part is that I have food cravings even when I'm not hungry. That's going to have to be a behavioral change on my part -- to really listen to my body and know when it's a craving and when it's true hunger. Today, I was craving something sweet, so I built in about 300 calories of cusion by making certain choices; and then I was able to indulge myself and still stay under the limit.
edit: the audiobook idea in the above post is a great idea; I have a little ipod shuffle; i could maybe fit in a few chapters of a book when I go for my walks (and bike rides as the weather improves).
Day 1 was fine. Day 2 was tough for me for some reason; I really did feel deprived. Today (Day 3) wasn't bad though.
The hardest part is figuring out how many calories a particular food has, as well as correctly estimating serving sizes ("how much is 1 ounce of cheese really?"). I have found the following websites helpful:
http://www.calorieking.com/tools/exercise_calories.php (enter exercise duration to get a list of different exercises and how many calories they burn)
http://www.calorieking.com/tools/exercise_time.php (kind of the reverse -- If I want to undo 500 calories, how much time of each kind of exercise will I need?)
http://www.nutritiondata.com/ (use the search tool in the upper right corner to find calorie and nutrition data; also check out the measurement conversion tool at the bottom of each search results page to turn grams into ounces etc.)
Another hard part is that I have food cravings even when I'm not hungry. That's going to have to be a behavioral change on my part -- to really listen to my body and know when it's a craving and when it's true hunger. Today, I was craving something sweet, so I built in about 300 calories of cusion by making certain choices; and then I was able to indulge myself and still stay under the limit.
edit: the audiobook idea in the above post is a great idea; I have a little ipod shuffle; i could maybe fit in a few chapters of a book when I go for my walks (and bike rides as the weather improves).
I don't know how accurate this is, but I was told in my jogging and fitness classes in college NOT to reduce calories, rather replace calories. If you eat 2500 calories a day, you can safely cut 300 calories or starting eat 2200 calories a day of good stuff (such as fruits, vegetables).*
*this comes from a 210 lb 5'11 man with 29% body fat. Needless to say, I don't follow their advice
*this comes from a 210 lb 5'11 man with 29% body fat. Needless to say, I don't follow their advice
Last edited:
freebfrost
Explorer
SpiderMonkey said:
A caveat here - this is a classic mistake that I made when I was younger too. Any time you focus on torso work, make sure to balance it. All the focus on abs is great, but when you have a strong abdominals and a weaker lumbar region, you are going to have issues later in life. Like lots of back problems.
I recommend doing some lower back exercises to keep your relative muscle sets in proportion strength-wise. Also, remember that your trunk muscles are a lot more than just your rectus abdominus (six-pack). Work the supporting areas as well.
SpiderMonkey
Explorer
freebfrost said:
Doh! Thanks for the catch, freebfrost. Yeah, make sure you get your lower back work in there too. I tend to do abs when I can remember to, so when I do schedule workouts, I tend to pencil 'em in more frequently than necessary. Realistically, three times a week is plenty.
DaveStebbins
First Post
Of course, as soon as I posted the bit Eric responded to, my MP3 player decided it would no longer communicate with my PC, and the PC won't recognize it. Then, of course, the audiobook copy of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel which I ordered from Amazon was delivered today. I had just finished one audiobook and would have been ready to start this one. Now, after working with a friend for several hours on the problem, I appear to be screwed.EricNoah said:
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